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Matchmaking Algorithm is garbage

Turanius·3/20/2018, 6:52:21 AM·71 votes·9,131 views

While you’re in queue, League’s matchmaking system puts together a game that tries to balance three things:

Fair matches - Each team is roughly the same skill
Position preference - You get to play a position you want to play
Fast queue times - The time spent queuing is as short as possible

The above statement is provided by RIOT in the FAQ for matchmaking. The very first suggestion saying that " each team is roughly the same skill" I 100% disagree with; and I am putting RIOT in a bad spot for this. Here is why:

Earlier today, I played a ranked game with an individual that had just reached level 30, and had played only 3 ranked games ever. Some how, RIOTs matchmaking algorithm thought it was fair, and OK for it to throw this summoner into our ELO and game. From the get go of this match, we were handicapped and RIOT did not live up to its statement that I have pasted above. I am not demoralizing anyone; but clearly this individual should not have been paired with us. Their level was not on par to anyone in that game, to include the enemy team. They did not have the concept of their role, and therefore, our team had to pay the price, because of a bad algorithm for match making.

This is what I am saying. You have tons of data at your fingertips as developers, for each summoner. And yet such little criteria is taken into consideration in the matchmaking process. I've been playing LOL since 2012. I am a veteran of this game. I may not be in high tier ranking, but I know this game and know how to play it, and what it takes to fulfill my duties in team scenarios. The amount of time, and games played, or win-rate, etc, should be other variables that play a part in the matchmaking process. There has to be a better way to mitigate the chances of being matched with someone who has just started their account and has no business playing with the more experienced summoners who take this game at a more serious level.

Here is the real problem. LOL is no doubt, a very toxic community, and is known to be a rough landing for any and all new summoners that join runetera. And I wouldn't doubt that this is the reason why. During the game with this individual, they kept apologizing for their ignorance in the game. I don't blame them though, because they just started, I 100% blame RIOT for this. At the same time, other teammates were bashing this new summoner for not doing their job. But why, it isn't their fault. They're absolutely new to this game and is still on the learning curve. So now you have 4 summoners with an unfair match up; with a guarantee loss; and all because the lack of data that is used in optimizing player matchmaking. The poor new summoner is more than likely going to have more games like this, no doubt, where they feel as though they are burdening the team; which in turn is going to draw a lot of negative attitudes and remarks from the more seasoned players. You are putting a bad taste in the game for new comers, and veterans alike. DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

LOL has come a very long way over the past 6 years of me playing. I've seen this game grow to feats unimaginable, and it is an honor to be able to say that I've been part of its growth for so long. But RIOT and the developers need to make a better effort in its matchmaking. Or, just change that statement up top to "You will get handicapped games sometimes, sorry".

53 Comments

What Is Smite3/20/2018, 11:11:20 AM8 votes

Yea Riot's MMR system is fucked, I'm closing in on Diamond MMR (Currently Plat 3 MMR and Rank) but even still I see the odd Gold 5 player in a game well over their MMR score and at times I feel bad for both the player and the team they are on because that team will have a useless champion and be fighting an uphill battle with how much CS their one player is denied from their opposing laner.

Az Lusheni Az3/20/2018, 7:51:02 AM7 votes

just wait for the riot fan-girls to get on. Riot does no wrong to them, they will rather defend a clearly broken system than advocate to get matchmaking fixed. I just had a game where my team had 2 golds, 2 silvers & 1 unranked but Enemy team had 3 plat players, 1 diamond & 1 unranked. This is fair match making to riot. I am sure they will pull up some ass data to back that one up as well.

Cryptys3/20/2018, 5:19:19 PM4 votes

You realize every ranked mmr system takes time to accurately determine that player's true elo? Those players still have to find a game somewhere. So using a brand new player as your example is bad because that's how the system works.

Edit: I suppose the system could try to gauge the player's elo from all of his normal games up until he plays his first ranked games. However, I'm not sure if you've paid attention but the quality/skill level in normal games vs ranked games are as different as night and day even for the same player.

IP Masquerena3/20/2018, 10:44:53 AM3 votes

Can I start laughing now? Pls say yes, pls say yes, pleeeeeease.

Look, if you play since 2012, and you're still silver, which you are, it means you are anything but a veteran. Hey, I may be silver, but I actively play for a few months, as in the past years, I would just do the 10 calibration games and leave it there till end of season.

Now, low gold (as in 4-5) until B5 is where new players get matched. Riot doesn't care about match number, but about MMR, if their MMR was equal to yours, then that should say something about you, not them.

Yes, I agree there's a slight problem with the MM currently, but that's due to Riot trying to make it more and more team oriented, thus allowing just a few champs to be able to solo carry IF they get fed enough, which at low elos, is a problem, since there are so many variables. But the system is as good as it gets. There is no way to improve it without making it exploitable. Want a few examples? Ok, here you go:

  • Make it after the rank you get at the end of the game and now w/l? You already have people who keep skills to ks just to get that S+ at the end every now and then, change to that, and that will be the norm. Noone will care to win, but only to get that S+.
  • Make it after farm? Noone will try to push, games will last an eternity so they can get as much cs as possible.
  • Make it after KDA? Noone will care to help, just to ks and get kills.

No matter what "personal" stat you add into MM, it will be exploitable. Want an example of that? Look at Dota 2. They had 2 incidents like this (because they didn't learn the first time). First it was the more damage you do, the higher you get ranked, so everyone was trying to pick Zeus (someone similar to Khartus) and use their ult and skills off cooldown to do as much damage as possible, and even players who were Plastic 5 in terms of skill level got placed in high Diamond (elo comparison). The 2nd case was a few years later, the more healing you do, the higher you get ranked. Well, after Oracle was released, everyone abused that mechanic, due to one of his skills both damaging your ally, then healing them, and also "overhealing", so again, Plastic players got to high Diamond, while all they did in their match was follow a champ and healing them with that skill off cooldown, but in this case, Valve reset their MMR back to 0. It takes a tiny bit of personal thing added in, and everyone will try to abuse it as soon as it's found out, without a care for win or loss.

If bot lane is fixed, and snowballing is reduced a bit, then the MM will be fine, but the way the game currently is, it's not the MM's fault, it's the nature of the game.

And you say "oh, I got an unranked player in my team", well, can I counter that with what happened in my last game? I got someone who was first time on Vlad mid against me, then after he fed, I decided to annoy the enemy Kindred so much until they went afk and the "report Kindred for afk" came up in chat. So yes, stupid things can happen to both teams, and you can still raise by your own kill, but due to the snowball and adc issues atm, it takes too damn long.

And one final tip: stop looking at the mistakes your team makes, and look at what the enemy makes, that will help you climb faster.

IP Masquerena3/21/2018, 8:16:48 AM3 votes

Gotta love these threads and the boards. If you say "match making is bull because x reason", you get upvote galore, but if you look at the guy who said the thing, and tell him his mistakes, pfff, downvotes over downvotes over downvotes.

After all, why wouldn't they, golds, silvers and bronzies who think they know everything can't accept being told they are bad. Why would they?

"Hey, 2 of my 3 most played champs have a winrate of bellow 40%, so it means that on avarage, I lose 6 to 7 games out of 10 when I play them, but it's not my fault that I feed on them, it's my team's vault because they can't carry me" "Hey I play this game for 6 years and I still am hardstuck silver, but it's not my fault that I didn't improve and can't adapt to changes, it's my team's fault"

JustCallMeSPED3/20/2018, 4:19:55 PM3 votes

Within the post and first set of comments in the /dev blog you referred to, which I can't link to directly because you can't do that with Nexus comments, they explain that

  • the MMR from one queue doesn't carry over to the others. Each queue you play on has a different MMR for you. So if you're playing Normal Blind Picks, you may be pit against Diamond players who literally just goof off in Normals to have some fun and so have a lower MMR than when they get serious in Ranked.
  • people who are still getting their rank (like the person who had only played 3 so far and so didn't have his placement yet) may be put in many different skill ranks over those 10 games to find the perfect spot for him to start, so it's not surprising if he showed up in your ranked game.

I know it isn't perfect, but they have said so anyway. They HAVE said there will sometimes be imbalanced games and that they are looking for way to improve it. Again, it's in that same post.

Legendinabox3/20/2018, 7:11:37 AM2 votes

Preach friend.

SanKakU3/21/2018, 5:18:42 PM2 votes

I made a thread contesting their recent article too but it was down-voted and ignored. I just think the best thing they can do for their matchmaking is to start with looking for a team and matching it against another instead of trying to find 10 people and splitting them up into 2 groups of 5. Once they make that a consistent matchmaking rule, then they can broaden their algorithm to be better. I could go into further detail what that means, but it's useless if there's no attention paid to my posts.

cheerfothebeer3/20/2018, 3:44:14 PM2 votes

{quoted}

While you’re in queue, League’s matchmaking system puts together a game that tries to balance three things:

Fair matches - Each team is roughly the same skill
Position preference - You get to play a position you want to play
Fast queue times - The time spent queuing is as short as possible

The above statement is provided by RIOT in the FAQ for matchmaking. The very first suggestion saying that " each team is roughly the same skill" I 100% disagree with; and I am putting RIOT in a bad spot for this. Here is why:

Earlier today, I played a ranked game with an individual that had just reached level 30, and had played only 3 ranked games ever. Some how, RIOTs matchmaking algorithm thought it was fair, and OK for it to throw this summoner into our ELO and game. From the get go of this match, we were handicapped and RIOT did not live up to its statement that I have pasted above. I am not demoralizing anyone; but clearly this individual should not have been paired with us. Their level was not on par to anyone in that game, to include the enemy team. They did not have the concept of their role, and therefore, our team had to pay the price, because of a bad algorithm for match making.

This is what I am saying. You have tons of data at your fingertips as developers, for each summoner. And yet such little criteria is taken into consideration in the matchmaking process. I've been playing LOL since 2012. I am a veteran of this game. I may not be in high tier ranking, but I know this game and know how to play it, and what it takes to fulfill my duties in team scenarios. The amount of time, and games played, or win-rate, etc, should be other variables that play a part in the matchmaking process. There has to be a better way to mitigate the chances of being matched with someone who has just started their account and has no business playing with the more experienced summoners who take this game at a more serious level.

Here is the real problem. LOL is no doubt, a very toxic community, and is known to be a rough landing for any and all new summoners that join runetera. And I wouldn't doubt that this is the reason why. During the game with this individual, they kept apologizing for their ignorance in the game. I don't blame them though, because they just started, I 100% blame RIOT for this. At the same time, other teammates were bashing this new summoner for not doing their job. But why, it isn't their fault. They're absolutely new to this game and is still on the learning curve. So now you have 4 summoners with an unfair match up; with a guarantee loss; and all because the lack of data that is used in optimizing player matchmaking. The poor new summoner is more than likely going to have more games like this, no doubt, where they feel as though they are burdening the team; which in turn is going to draw a lot of negative attitudes and remarks from the more seasoned players. You are putting a bad taste in the game for new comers, and veterans alike. DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

LOL has come a very long way over the past 6 years of me playing. I've seen this game grow to feats unimaginable, and it is an honor to be able to say that I've been part of its growth for so long. But RIOT and the developers need to make a better effort in its matchmaking. Or, just change that statement up top to "You will get handicapped games sometimes, sorry".

We have been complaining to Riot for EVER about their matchmaking and at this point it is entirely a waste of your time and breath. They don't care about solo Q. They only care about LCS. The sooner you accept the fact that Riot doesn't care and move on the better off you will be. Listen, most of us are not going to be LCS players, so who gives a fuck what rank you are in. Play ranked, have fun, play meta, play non meta, play what you want and try to have fun doing it. If you are not having fun, try trolling a little, that tends to be amusing once in a while. Most important stop worrying about your rank. It's a game so enjoy playing it.

Risen293/20/2018, 10:32:36 PM2 votes

I wonder sometimes if it works like Dota2. There they will try to match MMR levels of each players. So you might be the highest MMR person on the team, but the other team has one high MMR player too. The problem comes in when the two high MMR players are not playing roles with the same level of impact, or they are paired in lanes against the person on the other team with the lowest MMR.

If the other teams high MMR player stomps the low MMR in mid lane they may roll up the whole game while you are stuck in support unable to make enough impact to offset the feast the enemy mid is getting.

KazaJhodo5/17/2018, 5:15:23 PM1 votes

We're all getting distracted talking about the players making comments, instead of the validity of what they said.

Its very simple, do your games feel consistent? That is it.

If matchmaking is working, then regardless of elo your games should feel the reasonably the same. As you climb, they should feel more difficult, and less forgiving of mistakes.

For me, the same elo games feel wildly different. In my vast experience with the game, its not even rational- especially lately, to suggest that games are well matched. Unquestionably.

PhilosopherTeemo7/5/2018, 6:38:45 AM1 votes

feels so bad

SÓRÒ6/2/2019, 12:18:58 AM1 votes

i was silver 3 and gets a bronze 4 on my team

woohoo thx rito

ReySolomon3/20/2018, 7:30:12 AM1 votes

You got downvoted for some reason.

I think they said they will see what they can do to make it better for casual/Grinders but we'll have to wait and see.

Silverjust3/20/2018, 5:08:47 PM1 votes

It might also be that small MMR differences cause a stronger snowball than in other seasons

minorhacks3/20/2018, 5:22:59 PM1 votes

Curious if someone new to ranked wants to play and there is no players in que to make 5 new lvl 30s play 5 new lvl 30s what should the matchmaker do? Honest question. It may suck getting the new guy but I'm not sure there is a easy fix.

Morticianjohn3/20/2018, 9:33:02 PM1 votes

There is a HUGE problem with matchmaking for new players. So many smurfs means that a player who is just starting to play ranked will be place much higher than their actual skill merits. I see it all the time. The system wants to put new players S5 or whatever but if they are new to ranked mostly they are B5 and if they are a Smurf they could be G5 or above. Because normal MMR and ranked MMR are so different we will frequently have these kinds of issues

haaaaaaalp3/20/2018, 9:39:06 PM1 votes

How the hell do you plan on improving mmr exactly? There are a few fixes such as removing autofill and afk protection can be improved but that is pretty much the limit to what can be done. The one thing that we have learned over the past 8 years is that even with all of the data riot has at their fingertips, win loss is still the most accurate measure of skill.

Modl Ryden l3/21/2018, 4:26:48 AM1 votes

It's so fucked. You do well for one game and matchmaking aggressively queues you against an opponent who's obviously 5x your skill.

That or you just get queued with toxic fucks as a means to pad your win rate.

Power Cosmic3/21/2018, 4:05:36 PM1 votes

You can only play one champ out of the five on your team. How you play should at least matter a little.

Psybicilin3/21/2018, 10:06:52 PM1 votes

Wait, you are silver II, and it's possible to get placed in high gold, so why would it be wrong to put someone in placements in you're game? There is no easy solution to calibrating someone's rank, and someone will have to suffer to put them at the right Elo. Let me put it this way, there's a 4/9 chance that a player like this gets put on your team, and a 5/9 chance that they get placed on the enemy team. If you play a statistically significant number of games you should get more new comers on the enemy team.

tibble4/2/2018, 10:17:36 PM1 votes

Riot games your matchmaking is so busted. Take care of the kids that get boosted, take care of the toxic people that dodge your tribunal system, do something about your dying game. Not make a new ultimate miss fortune skin.